Tulare County
Tulare County |
Milk Lines (March 1999) |
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Applications are now being accepted for the 1999 EQIP for Tulare County. The purpose of this program is to provide incentive payments and cost sharing to farmers, ranchers, and dairymen interested in installing needed conservation practices on their farms.
Each application will be ranked by a designated conservationist. Each practice that is new on the land will be given points based on its environmental impact. The offer index is then calculated using these environmental points and the total federal dollars spent on the project. The offer index is used to determine which cooperators will receive contracts. The contract available through EQIP can provide up to 50% cost sharing for conservation practices with a maximum rate of $10,000 per year, not to exceed $50,000 over the life of the contract. Contract duration ranges from 5 to 10 years. Funding is available for the valley as well as the rangeland areas.
Landowners solely interested in air quality projects on their farm or ranch can apply for EQIP funds to install air quality practices. Air quality applications will be ranked using criteria developed by the State Technical Committee. Completed applications will be ranked and submitted to our state office for possible funding. April 16, 1999, is the deadline to submit your application for the 1999 EQIP. To answer any questions you may have regarding this program and how the ranking process will work, contact the Tulare County USDA Service Center, 3530 W. Orchard Ct., Visalia, CA, or call (559) 734-8732, ext. 3.
Once a producer is offered a contract, all designs must be approved by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) prior to the installation of the practice. It is recommended that the producer have a knowledgeable engineer design the proposed practice because once a contract is finalized, cost-sharing amounts cannot be increased. It is also recommended that the engineer be informed that the practice must meet NRCS specifications. Cost estimates will be required for all planned practices.
If you are offered a contract, additional information may be required to process your application. If you are applying for cost sharing on the improvement of your dairy, all environmental permits must be obtained before work may begin.
Examples of eligible range and cropland practices are:
The following article on reduced GnRH dosage in synchronizing dairy cows was supplied by John H. Kirk, Veterinary Medicine Extensionist, UC, Tulare.
The use of combination hormone, reproductive programs on dairies is gaining in popularity in the U.S. The increased popularity is due to enhanced reproductive efficiency following timed AI compared to AI following detection of heat based on observation of mounting behavior. Using programs such as Ovsynch can nearly assure that 100% of the cows being bred are in heat, whereas the overall visual heat detection efficiency average for U.S. dairies is reported to be less than 50%.
The initial Ovsynch program called for a combination of injections of GnRH and PFG. The GnRH is used to more tightly synchronize the follicular waves, and the PFG is used to regress the corpus luteum bringing on a breedable heat. The program required two doses of 100 ug of GnRH: one dose given before and one after the PFG injections in the synchronization scheme. Many dairymen and veterinarians have recently been using reduced amounts of the GnRH as a means of controlling the cost per pregnancy.
A recent study on 237 Holstein cows, dosages of 100 ug and 50 ug were compared (Theriogenology 50:1275-1284, 1998). The synchronization rate, double-ovulation rate, conception rate at 28 and 56 days post-AI and pregnancy loss from 28 to 56 days post-AI did not differ significantly between the two treatment groups. The cost saving on the GnRH was estimated to be $6.40 per cow and $20.27 per pregnancy.
A word of caution: With GnRH drugs like Cystorelin, the dose of 50 ug is only 1 ml. It is difficult to measure out exactly 1 ml in all but the smallest syringes. Indeed, with larger syringes and needles, it would be very easy to leave most of the 1 ml dose in the syringe and needle or spill some while filling the syringe. Since 50 ug may be near the minimum dose required for a successful synchronization, it is very important to be sure that a 50 ug dose is in fact injected into the cow.
It is that time of year again to be concerned with weeds, particularly toxic weeds. The most common toxic weeds at this time of year are groundsel and fiddleneck. Both contain an alkaloid that can cause liver degeneration in cattle. The extent of damage is determined by the rate of ingestion over a period of time. Dr. Art Craigmill, UCD toxicologist, reports ingesting 5 to 10% of an animal's body weight daily (4 to 8 lbs of fiddleneck) for an 800 lb heifer could be fatal within 2 weeks.
A practical rule of thumb is that toxicity can occur if an animal eats hay having these weeds represent more than 5% of the dry matter. Intake of less than 1% of the dry matter is considered nontoxic. The problem with these alkaloids is that they are usually ingested in amounts that are not readily toxic, and the liver degeneration may take months before the animal is culled due to "poor performance." Ensiling has not shown conclusive proof that the fermentation process detoxifies the material. These weeds are bitter and cattle usually graze "around" them. Green chopping along with "clean" forage will mask the taste but intake is unknown.
The best control of the problem is with preemergence herbicides. Once growing, a contact spray such as bromoxynil (Buctril) can be more effective than 2,4-D or MCPA. Diluting groundsel or fiddleneck infested forage may reduce rate of liver damage in the animal, but intake control is the surest way. For more information on these weeds, call the farm advisor office at 733-6488.
The wet winter and warm spring means more mosquitos, gnats, and flies as the season progresses. Now is the time to start mosquito and gnat control by reducing weeds around lagoons, eliminating excess lagoon floatage with better solids separation, and remember to fluctuate lagoon water level on "beach areas" by alternately flooding or drying out where insects lay eggs. Follow the seven points listed by the local abatement agency to help reduce encephalitis from mosquitos and bluetongue from gnats.
Most dairy lagoons are well managed, but it only takes one disease outbreak to affect the whole industry. Lagoons that are suspect are those with less than 2 feet of free bank space (freeboard) from surface to top of levee, "dead" corners where little wind action can occur, or floatage is not "chained" to one end and removed.
The second version of the Unified Animal Feeding Operations (AFO) Strategy developed by EPA and USDA is available on the Web at the following:
The Executive Summary is six pages, and the full text is 43 pages. The 2,100 comment letters can be seen at Comments on the Executive Summary. Whether these documents are the final version or not depends on pending private and government actions. Clarifications will be made in the next newsletter.
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